Oddly enough, I did a thread on the very issue of these big companies throwing food away. www.abovetopsecret.com...
contains some video and data as to exactly how much is thrown out.

the odd thing about this case here is that if she had one to the police station and declared what she had found, she could have collected it from them
after 14 days.. same with the woman who found the 100k.. take it to the station.. declare as found and you get a bit of paper telling you the details
as to when you can claim the items if nobody else does.

A BBC Programme following four of the nation's top chefs - Angela Hartnett, Richard Corrigan, Matt Tebbutt and Simon Rimmer - as they journey deep
into the heart of Britain's food waste problem, exploring how and why the nation throws away and reject huge quantities of perfectly edible food.
Cameras follow the chefs as they source shocking amounts of unwanted food from every link in the food chain - from supermarkets to ordinary homes,
markets to farms - and then transform it into mouth-watering dishes.
The chefs face a unique and near-impossible task: can they create a fabulous banquet for over 60 VIPs using the food that the rest of us don't want?

According to Section 1 / 2 of the Theft Act of 1968 here in the UK (I learnt this from being in the Police), for Theft to take place, you need to have
Dishonestly Appropriated Property Belonging to Another with the Intention to Permanently Deprive them of it.

There are 5 elements to this and to be charged in a court of law, all 5 elements need to have taken place and been met.

Basically, because Tesco threw this stuff away and discarded it, the Property (food) no longer belonged to them. They got rid of this ownership but
dumping it.

So I would say TAKE ME TO COURT because any stupid Lawyer out there who is on your side should know this and it will get you off.

If the food was on Tesco private property (in their bins), then in theory she could be charged for trespassing but its far less of an offence and
won't result in a prison sentence which Theft normally does etc.

This Tesco express and the police department that enforced whatever law it was they were claiming to enforce, should be sued for emotional distress.
Tesco should be boycotted and many letters should be written on behalf of this thrifty woman who was simply helping them cut down on their waste.
WHERE IS THEIR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DEPARTMENT? They need to be seriously scolded.

According to the Wikipedia page on Tesco "It is the fourth-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Metro)
and the second-largest measured by profits (after Wal-Mart).[5] [en.wikipedia.org...] "

How dare they arrest a woman or taking what they threw away. Shame on them. Shameful business practices.

My mother's town has a similar law or ordinance (or it sounds familiar at least). Her home flooded a few years back and people needed to throw away
a lot of damaged/destroyed items. It was mainly scrappers that came through picking through the trash heeps, at first they were shooed away. After
awhile the efforts seemed futile, so the police arrested them under a similar law.

Granted the emotional investment in the situation was vastly different than the case with this woman but this type of law is a lot more common than
most people think.

Ironically, my town has approved pickers and we have to pay them to come and sort through the trash that the garbage people won't take (furniture,
electronics, etc.) Even still though, if the picker isn't licensed (ie your run of the mill homeless person) they will be arrested, my town even has
a strict anti loitering law that is specifically aimed at the homeless and a person walking down the street "looking homeless" can and has been
stopped and questioned.

When money is more important than people this is just one of the many, many messed up situations that eventuate. The way money is going it is even
messing itself up, it is only a matter of time. There does look to be some new technology appearing to help overcome the money addiction and return
some balance and decency back into life. Still a long way to go, but there is a glimmer of hope.

agreed and now that you mention it ... i wonder (cause it's not my region) ... just what is this "theft by finding" law? is it a local
ordinance? a state law? a perversion of an existing law? curious here but no time to research it.

if it is a legitimate law, why can't we sue the public officials who 'find' money when we're supposedly broke?
why can't we citizens arrest every business owner who features a "lost and found" at their establishment?
why aren't the officers reprimanded each time they "find" evidence not otherwise visible?

would somebody please post a link or excerpt of this law ... this ought to be good

Back when I lived in Toronto... some moron tried to pass a law that made it illegal to pick up trash left on the curb. Fortunately that didn't pass.
Here in Vegas we have people all the time on trash night picking up old furniture and metal, even taking plastic bottles that can be redeemed in
Calif for the nickle

I know several cities do have a trash law... the concept is your stealing it from the City. Stupid law to stop people recycling stuff and saving our
land fills

Here in Vega we have tons of conventions... during the show the exhibitors gave out tons of free samples especially at the food show. If you go in
before end of show you can get tons of free stuff.

But at the end of the show things change. (note this happens at the city owned sites, nut the private ones) They have a rule that anyone taking
anything from the floor can get arrested and/or removed and banned from the show floor.

Now the exhibitors don't want pay for the shipping return so they just toss it out or give it away to the workers. But if your caught you get banned
from working the site or arrested by the police outside.

What happens to the stuff? Trash bins...

The irony is that the cleaners that take it to the trash... they glean the stuff

Stupidity all around. The exhibitors are giving it away, the rest is trash, but you get arrested if you touch it

Yeah, doesn't surprise me much... I used to live in San Antonio. There was a BBQ chain there that would throw away WHOLE hams, chickens, and other
large chunks of dead animals on occasion. The employees were told that if anyone took the leftovers from the building other than to the dumpster,
they would be fired and arrested for theft. They also kept security cameras on the dumpster and there was at least one arrest I heard about of people
dumpster diving for the food.

This mentality is a result of the polical/corporate whorefest that pervades western politics. The political structure has been compromised for many
years now, with the neverending stream of corporate donations that ensure business interests are secured.

I am sure this little law was thought up (and probably written!) by some grocer's coalition lobby group.
Thought Process: We have to throw out tons of food a year (loss), cause it's easier than donating it, or finding a better system of stocking. But God
forbid we take further loss if a potential customer wants to benefit from our waste!

(Insert Political Donation Here) "Oh Senator Paytoplay, could you add a line to that (unrelated) bill that makes dumpster diving for food illegal, we
don't want people to get sick, cause we care!"

I do asset / inventory management as a career and one of the interesting things is what gets thrown out instead of donated. I've personally destroyed
fridges, washers, dryers, computers, monitors and had many many other things destroyed through the course of my career because either regulations and
legal liability make it too high of a risk to donate. On top of that with most electronics now days you actually have to pay an approved company to
take them and destroy them in an environmentally friendly way rather than donate them (Well you could donate them but if they wind up in a landfill
and get traced back to your company your company will get fined).

A large microchip manufacturer I worked for was very good about donating to local schools but in general all the stupid regulations make it too
difficult for any company to donate over dispose.

As far as the picking through trash laws where I live I have had it explained to me by a LEO that it is to keep people from having sensitive
information stolen and to stop the messes that are caused by trash picking and most importantly if it was legal and someone got hurt picking your
trash they could sue you for damages...

So I think it all goes back to the level of personal responsibility your area expects. If you don't have ridiculous regulations that allow people to
sue, fine, or otherwise punish the person doing the tossing it would be fine for the person to do the picking...

One of the biggest shames of this situation is that in places like New York the city dumps a large portion of its garbage into the ocean for disposal
because it is so expensive to haul it out of state..

I have my doubts that this will stick anyway. It looks like the charge was applied under the wrong legal premise. Police often don't know the laws
that they work under and charges get pressed just in case they do apply. These situations usually get dropped in court. Its no skin off an officers
back to press a bogus charge. Once after being threatened with a BS charge I told a cop I would love the opportunity to make a monkey out of him in
front of the entire court. His response was "Fine, I get paid overtime for that." I don't think he got the joke that he unwittingly provided.

Several years ago in our local paper a teen was fired and charged with theft over not cutting the electrical cords on items thrown out by Home Depot.
He claimed that he was allowing the homeless to get the items to pawn them for food and shelter since it was being classified as waste and written off
anyway on taxes as "loss"... but the media here twisted it into the teen stealing from the company so his friends could pawn for drugs. When all of
the facts came out.... including video of his "friends" who were actually homeless folks... the case disappeared from the news.

Help the homeless = bad
try to feed or shelter yourself not by theft but by scavenging things that are unwanted = bad
turn your back on your fellow man = good
lay down and die you useless eater = good

In a capitalist system money and profit is more important than people.

Capitalists keep prices high by artificial scarcity of resources, under production and destruction of unsold goods.

It is not in their best interest to let people take the unsold resources as this will lead to less profits. There is as many resources destroyed, for
one reason or another, than are sold.

Technological capacity to produce enough to satisfy everyone's needs already exists globally and has done so for many decades. Yet needs continue
to remain unmet on a massive scale. Why? Quite simply because scarcity is a functional requirement of capitalism itself.

no offense to your socialist stance, however, there is -0-, zippo, not one socialist country that can come close to producing or supporting or
providing for its own. If you believe i'm wrong, please post a source.

edit: before you throw the US problems back at me ... i'm well aware we have far to go.
i never said we are applying the benefits of capitalism properly (that is another discussion)

however, we (the US) provide more for citizens of other countries, more for illegal immigrants who abuse our country and more for terrorist
organizations to destroy our country than any other country in existence ... hence, there is NO comparison.

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